Dating is a fundamental need of individuals and society. Dating methods are subtle and constantly evolving due to sociological conditions and changing tolerances. Dating methods and systems constantly adapt to trends. Individuals who desire to meet and date other individuals presently have a plurality of methods available to them, each with their own limitations. Known approaches to meeting other individuals include forced communications at dance clubs, social clubs, bars, on-line services, personal ads, networking, and the like. Often, however, conventional dating locations are flooded with loud music, which are costly and create difficulty communicating, especially if a person feel uncomfortable with his or her personal appearance.
Being present at such a location does not automatically convey the information that a person is available for dating. Today, dating is a guessing game. Individuals have to rely on conventional external signs such as the presence of a wedding band, sitting at a bar for a long period of time, and making sustained eye contact or being friendly with another person in the location. As a result, individuals may be disinclined to initiate communication with the intention of dating for fear of rejection or may be misled by social conventions leading to inaccurate assumptions about availability, sexual orientation, and the like. For example, men wearing a wedding band may still be interested in dating as long as the other person is interested in dating a married individual. Today, a married person resorts to removing the band to deceive prospective suitors. Another example is straight individuals who wish to join homosexual friends at their dedicated nightclubs and have no way to convey clearly to others an intention to meet members of the opposite sex.
Newspaper personals ads and on-line ads offer a little more flexibility. These potentially costly methods require dedication, patience, persistence, and the need to understand and decode a plurality of conventions to reach in a predetermined individual in a precise setting. These remote services typically lead to blind dates, which are often feared by shy individuals because it is nearly impossible to truly anticipate the other person's demeanor and empathy. Professional dating services or publications require the disclosure to a third party personal data, sexual desires, and other particular sexual practices that often must be held in strict confidence.
In contrast, attendance at bars, dance clubs, and other public places allows for better control of temporary and selective personal information that may not be intended for wider distribution, while on-line publications and newspaper personals allow for better screening of potential candidates before a first contact is initiated. Society tries awkwardly to accommodate these expectations by allowing individuals of similar interest to select certain times and locations where they may meet. Again, the secrecy of this expectation is often diluted by a flow of unwary individuals at the chosen location.
What is needed is a low-cost method and system that provides individuals to display and discern dating status information in an informal fashion in order to better initiate dating communications. This system and method may be used in public and semipublic places and allows an individual to temporarily and selectively display personal information based on prearranged social convention set up by a third party.